The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1791 as part of the United States Bill of Rights. It guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury consisting of jurors from the state and district in which the crime was alleged to have been committed. The right to a jury applies only to offenses in which the penalty is imprisonment for longer than six months. The Sixth Amendment requires that criminal defendants be given notice of the nature and cause of accusations against them.

The amendments Confrontation Clause gives criminal defendants the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, while the Compulsory Process Clause gives criminal defendants the right to call their own witnesses and, in some cases, compel witnesses to testify. The Assistance of Counsel Clause grants criminal defendants the right to be assisted by counsel. In Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment mandates unanimity in all federal and state criminal jury trials.

Impartiality is a key feature of the Sixth Amendment, requiring individual jurors to be unbiased. The right to counsel is considered to be one of the most important tenets of the Sixth Amendment. While the Constitution and the courts had since decided that a defendant can be represented by a lawyer of their choice, the question of legal representation for those who could not afford it went largely unaddressed. 1963’s Gideon v. Wainwright determined that defendants are entitled to free-of-charge legal counsel.

In summary, the Sixth Amendment guarantees criminal defendants nine different rights, including the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses, the right to call their own witnesses, and the right to be assisted by counsel.